The blast targeted a bus carrying conscripts in the Nile Delta province of Beheira early in the morning, police Brig. Gen. Khaled al-Hameed said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile in the restive northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, another roadside bomb targeted an armored military vehicle in el-Arish city, wounding five security personnel, security and medical officials said. The troops were hit while patrolling the ring road south of el-Arish.

A day earlier, officials said attackers blew up a tank in the northern part of Sinai, killing one soldier and wounding two others. The Sunday morning roadside explosion was set off remotely, destroying the M-60 tank in the town of Qawadis, not far from the flashpoint town of Sheikh Zuweid.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to brief reporters. Reporting is strictly controlled in the restive area, where a local Islamic State affiliate has been battling security forces.

A long-running insurgency in Sinai escalated after the 2013 military ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, and there have also been a string of attacks on the mainland, including in Cairo, mainly targeting security forces.

Last week, a massive car bomb claimed by the local Islamic State affiliate ripped into a national security building in a residential neighborhood in Cairo, wounding at least 29 people and blowing the facades off nearby buildings.

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This story has been corrected to show the full name of the deputy health minister is Alaa el-Deen Othman.